Poor Relief - Law Commission

Reference Extent of repeal or revocation
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7 Geo.4 c.i (1826) The whole Act.
(Loes and Wilford
Poor Relief Act)
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7 Geo.4 c.i (1826) (Loes and Wilford Poor Relief Act)
1. This note proposes the repeal of an obsolete 1826 Act passed to provide relief
for the poor living in the Hundreds 134 of Loes and Wilford in the county of Suffolk.
Loes and Wilford do not today exist as distinct areas. The workhouse or house of
industry to which the 1826 Act related was situated at Melton, near Woodbridge in
Suffolk.
2. According to its long title, the purpose of the 1826 Act was:
to repeal Two Acts relating to the Employment of the Poor within the
Hundreds of Loes and Wilford, in the county of Suffolk, and to disincorporate
the said Hundreds.
3. The preamble to the 1826 Act refers to an Act of 1791 135 which repealed an Act
of 1765 136 which established the Guardians of the Poor within the Hundreds of Loes
and Wilford, in the County of Suffolk (“the Guardians”). A house of industry 137 was
built in the late 1760s pursuant to that 1765 Act. The 1791 Act vested the workhouse
and powers provided in the 1765 Act in a newly incorporated body of Guardians. The
preamble also refers to an Act of 1810 138 which altered the powers and duties of the
Guardians. The preamble states that these Acts have resulted in “Inconvenience and
Increase of Expence in the Management of the Poor…without any adequate
beneficial Result, either to the Poor themselves or to the greater Number of the
Parishes composing the Incorporation”. The purpose of the 1826 Act was therefore
to repeal the earlier enactments and to abolish the incorporation.
4. The 1826 Act provided as follows:
(a) the repeal of the 1791 and 1810 Acts; the abolition of the Corporation of
the Guardians and the divesting of all the Corporation’s assets (Section 1)
134
The “hundred” is an ancient description of groups of townships in English counties.
135
31 Geo. 3 c.72 : “An Act for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor within the Hundreds of
Loes and Wilfordm in the County of Suffolk”.
136
5 Geo. 3 c.97 : “An Act for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor in the Hundreds of Loes and
Wilford, in the County of Suffolk”.
137
Workhouses were commonly described as “houses of industry”.
140